15

December 27, 2009

There are two different tales of the quest for the Holy Grail—the Galahad version, which was written by a Knight, and the Parzival (Percival) version, which was written by a Gardener. Both hero-stories influence us today though few Knights or Gardeners are aware of the original tales.

Both accounts of the Grail quest were written to diagnose and solve the greatest spiritual problems of 12th and 13th century Europe—the corruption of the Church, and the Church’s requirement that people order their lives along the dictates of the orthodoxy rather than the divinely-inspired callings of their own hearts. As both Grail stories begin, the world has fallen into literal ruin—a wasteland—as a reflection of its spiritual ruin.